January 04, 2007
Now, Outsourced Lawyers
By Priya Jestin, Staff WriterHow would you fee if all the jobs at General Motors suddenly moved to China? Chances are you wouldn’t think twice about it. Why? Because for quite a few years now, it’s been the Chinese, Taiwanese and others who’ve been at the helm of the manufacturing industry. Moreover, the manufacturing industry isn’t as paying as say the software or banking industries.
But if major corporations began to work with lawyers in India, you’d definitely have a big problem. That would be a breach of security and well, how can we trust these guys with important information? Well, if you didn’t already know, the practice has been on for some time now. Corporations like Oracle, Cisco and General Electric are some of the big names that have begun trimming their legal costs.
According to a recent report by Crisil Research and Information Service, the legal offshoring industry is expected to grow to $4.7 billion by 2012 in India alone. Of course, it’s the cost advantage. Who’d want to pay an American lawyer $200 or more an hour when you can get an Indian lawyer for anything between $50 and $70 an hour? If you want to go even cheaper, you could get an Indian lawyer working as a temp. It would cost $20 an hour or less, which when compared to $70 an hour for a temp in America, works out to the Indian’s favor.
Until quite recently, lawyers were immune to the offshoring phenomenon and didn’t have to worry about losing their jobs. This was mainly because their work was steeped in arcane U.S. law. It also often dealt with sensitive information companies feared could fall into the wrong hands. But that reluctance is fading now.
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